*Picture of the day: Kole and his buddy poolside with root beer floats – livin’ the good life. :)
Ahhh summer. Â Moms.. how are you holding up? Â Are you all hanging in there? Â Two days ago I had to go to the doctor for an MRI. Â (Dealing with re-occuring knee issues I’ve had since I was 10 years old.) Â The guy administering the MRI told me that he was sorry, but I’d have to put on some headphones and lay still for 30 minutes.. 15 minutes for each knee. Â I said “Sorry? Â You’re sorry? Â I have 3 kids and we’re in the middle of summer. Â 30 minutes of headphones and laying still doing absolutely nothing sounds amazing. Â Don’t be sorry.. it will be the highlight of my week!”
And it was. Â It felt so good. Â I just zoned out, let my thoughts wander and almost fell asleep. Â Talk about relaxing! Â I was seriously sad when it was over. Â I told him it was the closest thing to a spa treatment I was going to get for a while and I’d see him next week please.. same time same place? Â Ha. :) Â I love summer. Â But it’s exhausting and I’m tired.
Part of the reason I’m tired (aside from the usual summer shenanigans with my kids) is because of a little project I’ve got going on that is occupying a lot of brain power. Â Remember the extra room next to our playroom? Â You can see more pics of it and my organized attic in this post from a couple years back.
When we built our house we planned for this space to be a theatre room. Â At one point during building we were going to finish it, but we knew it was a room that would take a lot of planning and we were so overwhelmed with all of the other decisions going on that we decided to leave it alone, get settled in the new house, buy a couch or two and tackle it later.
And now it’s later. :)
My husband and I went back and forth on this room so many times and had totally different ideas of how it would look. Â I really wanted it to just be like a second family room more than a theatre room. Â I didn’t want the stacked rows of seats – I like comfy and cozy and just wanted one big couch. Â I also would have been fine with a large TV instead of a projector and screen. Â My husband had dreams of making this space more “theatre like.” Â Finally we met in the middle and decided that I would take over the room layout and all design decisions while he would handle all things audio, electrical and technical. Â So basically this room will consist of a large comfy couch (with cute throw pillows of course) and a projector/projection screen.
And popcorn. Â We both agreed on the popcorn. ;)
These pictures are early on getting everything taped out the way we sketched it.
Soon after it was go time and the couch and crib had to leave!
And this is what our theatre room looks like at the moment!
So maybe there’s a little more going on than just a couch and projector.
If I’m designing a room you better believe molding will be involved. ;) Â I’m in my happy place with where this room is going!
While this project is only one room, it has been so time consuming. Â A lot to figure out – especially with all of the electrical stuff going on. Â I’m really grateful we didn’t try to tackle this room while we were building the rest of the house. Â Even though doing it this way means we get to enjoy all the dust floating though our upstairs. ;) Â It’s seriously everywhere!
So there you go! Â A little progress update on one of the many projects going on around here right now.
I can’t remember if I shared this on the blog at the beginning of the year, but if not these were my house goals for 2017:
1 – Design, build and decorate the theatre room. Â Obviously we hire out the building part! Â By “build” I mean to manage all of the moving pieces. :)
2 – Design and build something to cover the outdoor TV (progress post on that project here.)
3 – Decorate our guest bedroom (you can see the beginning here and more fun progress is coming soon!)
4 – Finish decorating the master bedroom (done and I can’t believe I still haven’t shared it with you all yet! Â I’m not checking it off of my list until I’ve blogged about it.) ;)
5 – Decorate Kole’s bedroom (first progress post on his room here.)
6 – Finish the garage. Â You can see my last garage progress post here although it didn’t include a whole lot of progress! Â I’ve realized that it’s really hard to whip the garage into shape when you have so many other projects going on. Â Our garage has become the catch all for everything project related! Â Right now it’s full of extra wood the guys are using for the theatre room. Â And dust. Â LOTS of dust going on at my house. Â Did I mention that already?
The garage might not get finished this year but I think (I hope!) everything else on my list will.
I also have a “to organize” project list that I’m working on but that project list deserves a blog post of its own!
Want to see our other recent catch all with all of these projects going on?
Yup. Â That’s what used to be my organized playroom. Â Everything isn’t quite in its place at the moment! Â And yup. Â Still not ready to get rid of my crib and rocking chair. Â So I’m not. Â :) Â Keeping them both. Â I just need to decide where to store them. Â And find the energy to put them away.
Then I need to find the energy to clean up everything else in this room.  This space will most likely be on my 2018 “to decorate” list.
But I can’t go there now.
It makes me want another MRI.
:)
p.s. The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale opens to everyone on Friday! I shared my favorites from the sale here and here if you missed them. :)
(affiliate links used)
Wow, Erin! I want one of those spa days, too! I hope the results of the MRI are positive! That’d really ruin your zen if they weren’t. Good luck, there! How exciting that you are working on the Theatre room. I’m with you on not wanting rows of seats. Wouldn’t quite match the homey feel of the rest of your house. Looks like a lot is going into completing this project and I wish you good luck on that, as well. When you go all in, you go all in! :) Can’t wait to see the final results. Sending you good vibes on re-re-organzing the garage and playroom. It’s true what they say, it looks a lot worse before it gets better. I did a purge of stuff in my crafty space the other day. (cough,cough, nothing major, just getting rid of all the glass storage pieces that looked so pretty, but are so not functional and I need more function). I about gave up when I saw the mess I created. Persevered and made a trip to the Goodwill the same afternoon. Progress…tiny but good. :) And finally, it just wouldn’t be summer without some boys relaxing with a rootbeer float. LOVE that! Thanks for sharing, Erin and much good luck to you as you move forward with your summer and all it entails. :)
Yea for purging your craft area Jeanne! I need to get to our office sometime this summer too.. summer is flying by so quickly. Yikes! Never enough hours in the day. :) I’m happy for you that you made some progress! Such a good feeling. That motivated me! Hope you are enjoying your summer so far! xo
Oh wow! I cannot wait to see the final result. That will be such a neat space for family movie night….POPCORN included. You will have to have a big opening night. What movie to play as the first one?!?!!? xxoo
Love that idea Pamela! An opening night for sure. With LOTS of popcorn. :) Wish I could invite you and your sweet daughter over for a movie! xo
Hi Erin
I’ve been following your blog for years – thank you for sharing with your inter-web friends :)
I have a random (and boring) photo request: in your next post about this project, I was wondering if you could post a photo of the contractors actually painting the paneling and built-in storage. The reason being, in Australia, this type of architectural detailing isn’t very common and it would be great to see how they get the beatiful finishes I keep seeing everywhere in your house. Many thanks!
Hi Rose! Thank you so much for reading for so long! That means a lot. :) I think that’s a great post idea! And not boring at all. ;) I’ll try to remember to take pics of the painting process! :) xo
Hey Erin! You’re going to love having a theater room. My hubby built one in our last house. We literally had a stage, with a 110″ screen, projector, all of the walls were soundproofed, the ceiling and walls were painted a dark grey, he built a special window insert to block out the light and built a riser so the seats in back were higher. We used this room almost every weekend! He actually thought that nobody would want to buy this house, because of the theater room. I should send you a picture of it. I can’t wait to see your finished room! xo
Oh love that Shari! How amazing he built it himself! I’m so happy to hear you used it a lot. We went back and forth on whether or now we’d use it because we love watching movies in our family room, but finally we figured at least the kids would use it! I bet we end up spending a lot of time in that room. :) xo
Can’t wait to se this finished, Erin! I know it’s going to be fabulous!!! Happy summer dear friend! Xoxo
Thank you sweet Bree! You’ll need to come over again for a movie and Fritos! ;) xo
Oh I’m glad you’re keeping the crib! Time is flying by SO fast that before we know it the girls will be getting married, then we’ll blink and you’ll be a grandma and you’ll be so happy you kept that crib! Scary thought but true! Pierson will be 14 on Monday, only 4 years until mission!
I’m sure the theatre room will be amazing, just like the rest of the house!
Josie! I can’t even stand it! 4 more years with Pierson at home and El is right behind him. Ahhhh! I can’t think about it or I’ll start to cry. So not ready for kids moving out.. or being a grandma! Ha! ;) Miss you guys! xo
Hi Erin,
We just moved into a new house and I have always admired your beautiful home. I knew I wanted gray walls so I decided to paint my entire downstairs Seattle and I even painted the inside on my front door Elf and want to paint the backs of a bookshelf Elf as well. Gray is such a challenging color to pick but I was so confident going with your colors! The painting will be a long time project but it will be worth it. If I post an IG pic, I’ll tag you. 😉
I am constantly thinking about how I want to do my master bedroom. The other day I thought, I wonder how Erin did hers… Then I realized in your home tour pictures, that was one space not there. So…I was so excited to read this post and see that you’ll be doing the exact post I was hoping for! Can’t wait for it. Sure wish I could fly you to Ohio for a design consultation!
Thank you so much Heather! I’m so happy I was able to help with paint! I know exactly what you mean.. grays are SO hard. Definitely tag me or send some pics because I’d love to see how it turned out! Did you get the paint through Sherwin Williams and find it ok? And yes.. I’ll be sharing my master bedroom for sure. Hopefully this summer! :) Thanks again cutie! xo
While you’re at it, can you just come figure out all of my trim and moldings for the The Forest Modern?!! lol. Looks great! Now I’ll just have to come visit again to see all these finished projects ;). Be sure to take some rest time by that gorgeous pool friend, you deserve it!
love ya!
Shauna
We both need a little more pool time this summer! ;) And yes.. you will definitely have to visit again. But not until I’ve come to see you and that beautiful new home! Can’t wait! xo
Keep that crib!! I kept mine for 30 years! Once we found out we would not be having any grandchildren, I took the knobs off the four corners of it to keep and got rid of the rest!
I am just curious – do you have a cleaning lady or service that comes, or do you clean the house yourself? If you do it yourself, I would love to see a post or series of posts on how you manage to do it. Like do you do bathrooms on Mondays, dusting on Tuesdays, etc. or some other system. Thanks!!
Hi Lori! Ok! You don’t have to ask me twice.. keeping it! Ha ha.. :) I do have help cleaning! I actually wrote a post all about my system! I’ll have to follow it up with one that shares more details but you can read more about how I keep my house clean here:
https://www.thesunnysideupblog.com/2016/07/7-secrets-keep-house-clean-organized/
Woah!! Holy molding, Batman!!! It’s looking AMAZING!
Thank you so much Haneen! Happy you like it! I’m excited to have this one finished and checked off the list! ;) xo